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Texas Football: Any Concern Over Recent D-lineman Transfers?

Should Texas fans worry about losing a pair of senior contributors in the trenches?

Texas football lost both depth and experience on the defensive line this week with the announcement defensive tackles Gerald Wilbon and D'Andre Christmas-Giles would enter the transfer portal and seek another school that may want their services. 

On the surface, a pair of senior defensive tackles heading off for greener pastures comes off a bit jarring, but when one takes all the factors into consideration it's really just business as usual for the Texas program. 

Texas coaches knew both players were heading out months ago, hence their participation in the senior day ceremonies. The two defensive tackles combined to play in 29 games with no starts during their tenures, though Christmas-Giles was a regular contributor during his freshman season under Charlie Strong. 

Texas clearly planned on letting both players head off to fin playing time in their last seasons of eligibility as graduate transfers, not only for the sake of the players but also to free up a pair of valuable scholarships for Tom Herman and his staff to use on either incoming freshmen, grad transfers or even 2021 prospects they may like. 

While some may bring up the new NCAA transfer portal rule that went into effect in 2018, these are the kinds of transfers that likely would have happened before the new regulations took hold. 

While Texas could always use extra depth, especially on the defensive line, neither of these players were ever quite the right fit for what Texas wanted to do on defense once Herman took over. 

As graduate transfers both Christmas-Giles and Wilbon will have immediate eligibility. 

So while most transfers have shades of grey involved, it's hard not to see this as a win-win for all parties involved.